Abstract

Methods allowing transformation of mode-locked laser pulses into nearly arbitrarily shaped, user defined waveforms were introduced more than two decades ago. Commonly termed pulse shaping^1,2, these methods rely on spectral dispersion to spatially separate - and subsequently recombine - the frequency components making up a broadband input pulse. While separated, the phase and amplitude (and sometimes the polarization) of the dispersed optical frequency components can be manipulated in parallel using various spatial light modulator technologies. The result is Fourier synthesis: after the frequencies are put back together, the output waveform is determined by the inverse Fourier transform of the spatial pattern transferred onto the complex optical spectrum (Fig. 1). Pulse shaping has found wide spread applications both in technology and ultrafast optical science.

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